Related Cos., developer of New York’s Time Warner Center, expects to start work on a second portion of its Hudson Yards project in the city by the middle of next year, Chairman Stephen Ross said. Construction on the first tower, the future headquarters of Coach Inc., will begin by November. Ross is confident that he will have enough lease commitments to begin the next section in mid-2013, he said today in an interview. Related is “far along with several tenants that really want to be there,” he said separately on Bloomberg Television’s “Market Makers” with Stephanie Ruhle and Erik Schatzker.

“When you build a project that size, you need a critical mass,” Ross said on the show, without naming potential tenants. “We’re looking to really give a value proposition to the tenants, like at cost, to bring them in, because we have the rest of the project to amortize, where we’ll make our profits. We’re making a proposition where it’s hard for them to say no.” The 46-story Coach tower, at 10th Avenue and West 30th Street, is one of two buildings planned for an eastern section of the project that doesn’t require a platform over the railroad tracks. Construction of the decking for the second portion should cost about $800 million, Related Hudson Yards President L. Jay Cross said in an interview last year.

Ross isn’t worried about financing the project, he said in the interview.

The portion of the project to start next year will include a second office tower and a 750,000-square-foot retail complex, along with a hotel and some residential units, he said. Both eastern sections should be completed by 2017, according to Ross.

__________________NEW YORK. World's capital.

“Office buildings are our factories – whether for tech, creative or traditional industries we must continue to grow our modern factories to create new jobs,” said United States Senator Chuck Schumer.

Related Companies Chairman Stephen Ross thanked God that he decided to move to New York, a city whose prospects he was very high on, in an appearance today on Bloomberg Television’s “Market Makers.” The developer also discussed his firm’s Hudson Yards development at length (see video above).

Ross confirmed that Related will break ground on the first tower at Hudson Yards this fall and that the firm is in the middle of negotiations with several high-profile possible tenants for the 4 million square feet of office space planned for the first phase of the project. He acknowledged that he’s hoping to lure tenants with discounts, and is asking $70 per foot in rent or is willing to sell space to tenants “at cost.”

__________________NEW YORK. World's capital.

“Office buildings are our factories – whether for tech, creative or traditional industries we must continue to grow our modern factories to create new jobs,” said United States Senator Chuck Schumer.

Amtrak's Gateway Tunnel project to link New York and New Jersey received a crucial boost Friday from Sen. Charles Schumer, who said the plan to construct a third rail line under the Hudson River was inching closer to reality. Mr. Schumer said with enough federal funding and all the relevant players on board, the project could break ground as early as the end of 2013. Usually it takes years before work can begin on such a complex, multi-billion dollar effort.

A new urgency has been brought to the project, Mr. Schumer said, since Amtrak's engineers determined that the best place to construct Gateway (which would have one tunnel in each direction) was directly under the Hudson Yards development on Manhattan's West Side. The Related Companies is expected to break ground on the massive, mixed-use project late this year. Both Related and Long Island Rail Road, the right-of-way property owners underneath Hudson Yards, are supportive of Gateway, he said.

"That means we need to build these tunnels now," the senior senator said. "We can't wait for the rest of the project to be formulated or nothing will happen."

__________________NEW YORK. World's capital.

“Office buildings are our factories – whether for tech, creative or traditional industries we must continue to grow our modern factories to create new jobs,” said United States Senator Chuck Schumer.

It's unclear exactly how Related's construction timeline will impact the project. Construction is slated to begin on its first Hudson Yards tower later this year, but building the decking over the rail yards won't begin until the firm signs leases for other officer towers in the project. None of those leases have yet been signed.

A person familiar with the project said that work on the decking could begin by late 2013, and that a shell of the tunnels would need to be under development by then.

"We have been working intensively with Amtrak and the LIRR on this complicated issue," said Joanna Rose, a Related spokeswoman, in a statement.

__________________NEW YORK. World's capital.

“Office buildings are our factories – whether for tech, creative or traditional industries we must continue to grow our modern factories to create new jobs,” said United States Senator Chuck Schumer.

The proposed "Gateway" project, which is still in the early planning stages, would add two more tunnels to the existing two between New York and New Jersey, and, in doing so, replace the planned ARC project that was scrapped in 2010 by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who pulled the state's funding for the project, citing cost overruns.

Schumer stressed the urgency of getting some initial federal funding—$10 million in 2013 and $100 million in 2014—to facilitate the early stages of the project, which would require determining the alignment of the tracks beneath the Hudson Yards development on the West Side, before construction is slated to begin on the site.

Amtrak's engineers say the only place to bring the new tunnels into Manhattan is under the Hudson Yards site in West Midtown, according to Schumer, a Democrat. He spoke at a breakfast sponsored by the New York Building Congress, a trade group.

A plan by developer Related Companies for the Hudson Yards site foresees construction of a residential, shopping and office complex over the site's active rail yards. Construction is to start by the end of this year.

"We will need contracts, design plans and construction dollars to flow over the next six to 12 months to make this a reality," Schumer said of the rail project. He wants the digging of the tunnels to start before the end of 2013

__________________NEW YORK. World's capital.

“Office buildings are our factories – whether for tech, creative or traditional industries we must continue to grow our modern factories to create new jobs,” said United States Senator Chuck Schumer.

Fantastic article and new renderings. Didn't know there would be an observation deck!

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In a few weeks, construction begins on New York’s largest development ever. Hudson Yards is handsome, ambitious, and potentially full of life. Should we care that it’s also a giant slab of private property? An exclusive preview.